CLIMATE:

Gingrich group's campaign takes aim at House bill

As the House barrels toward a vote on climate and energy legislation, a group headed by a prominent Republican is launching a national campaign aimed at scuttling the bill.

American Solutions for Winning the Future -- which is chaired by its founder, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- will launch a television advertising campaign tomorrow that argues Congress will make the country's economic conditions "dramatically worse" if it passes the climate bill.

The 30-second spot features footage of the dramatic 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge with a voice-over saying, "The economic winds are blowing." High winds blew the suspension bridge between Tacoma, Wash., and the Kitsap Peninsula into Puget Sound just four months after its opening.

"Now Congress is about to make things dramatically worse by passing a new national energy tax," it says. "We'll lose more jobs, pay more for gas and electricity -- pushing our economy to its breaking point."

The ad urges voters to call their congressional representative and stop the "national energy tax." The ads will run on national cable stations.

The group also claims that it already has more than 110,000 signatures on a petition urging defeat of the legislation sponsored by Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

American Solutions describes itself as a "tri-partisan organization" that aims to rise above traditional partisan gridlock and work on both public outreach and development of solutions on the economy, energy and education. The group has also been highly critical of the Waxman-Markey legislation, describing the bill as a "national energy tax".

Gingrich is also the father of "Drill here, drill now, pay less," the mantra of House Republicans last summer that morphed into the "Drill, baby, drill" chant at the Republican National Convention and became the party's energy message during last year's presidential campaign.